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Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B

Launch Complex 39B

Aerial view in June 2019, with Mobile Launcher-1 on the pad for testing
Launch site	Kennedy Space Center
Location	Merritt Island, Florida
Coordinates	28°37′38″N 80°37′15″W / 28.62722°N 80.62083°W / 28.62722; -80.62083
Operator	NASA
Orbital inclination range	28–62°
Launch history Status Active Launches 57 First launch May 18, 1969 (1969-05-18) Saturn V SA-505 Last launch October 28, 2009 (2009-10-28) Prototype Ares I Associated rockets Saturn V Saturn IB Space Shuttle Ares I OmegA SLS

Launch Complex 39B (LC-39B) is the second of Launch Complex 39's two launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space CenterinMerritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39A, were first designed for the Saturn V launch vehicle, which at the time was the United States' most powerful rocket. Typically used to launch NASA's crewed spaceflight missions since the late 1960s, the pad is currently being reconfigured for use by the agency's Space Launch System rocket, a Shuttle-derived launch vehicle which will be used in the Artemis program and subsequent Moon to Mars campaigns. The pad has also been leased for use by NASA to aerospace company Northrup Grumman, for use as a launch site for their Shuttle-derived OmegA launch vehicle, for National Security Space Launch flights and commercial launches.

Launch Complex 39B's inaugural launch in May 1969 was also that of the only Saturn V to launch from the pad; SA-505, used to launch the Apollo 10 mission. It eventually saw more use as the pad for all three Saturn IB launches of the Skylab program in the 1970s. With the advent of the Space Shuttle program in the early 1980s, pad 39A hosted all Space Shuttle launches until January 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger would become the first to launch from pad 39B during the ill-fated STS-51-L mission, which would end with the destruction of Challenger and the death of the mission's crew a minute into the flight. The program would restart in October 1988 with the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery from pad 39B during the STS-26 mission, with six subsequent missions launching from pad 39B. It would host 53 Space Shuttle launches until December 2006, when Discovery launched from the pad for the final time during the STS-116 mission; the program's remaining flights would all launch from pad 39A. Launch Complex 39B would subsequently be reconfigured for crewed Ares I launches as part of the Constellation program; the Ares I-X mission launched a prototype Ares I from 39B in October 2009, prior to the program's cancellation the following year. Since then, no launches from pad 39B have occurred.

Launches

List

Timeline

2

3

4

5

6

'73

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2009

•   Saturn V
•   Saturn IB
•   Space Shuttle
•   Ares I

See also

• List of Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island launch sites

References

Sources

Citations

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B.

• Launch Pad 39BatNASA
• Cape Canaveral LC39BatEncyclopedia Astronautica